Put On Your Dress
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: The case closed pizza ritual was missing one person tonight. It felt strange, unreal, to perform such a crucial gathering without their leader. Lisbon was in the ladies room, getting ready for a date. Jisbon and jealous Jane!


Put On Your Dress

_Put on your dress  
Ah, now I can see  
Across the room, the oldest ocean  
It rolls and it flows  
And there's a hush and a shimmer  
And a rush and a glimmer  
And a glide inside  
And a glow...  
And every move we make now  
And every stop we take now  
Is a new unknown  
Put on your dress...  
-John Foxx – Your Dress_

The case closed pizza ritual was missing one person tonight. It felt strange, unreal, to perform such a crucial gathering without their leader. Lisbon was in the ladies room, getting ready for a _date_. Even the word sounded strange in the same sentence as her name. Jane wasn't happy about it, and he'd made it known all day. One of her old school friends was in town, had looked her up and was now taking her to dinner in some fancy restaurant. Well, he assumed it was fancy because she'd bought a proper 'going out' dress to wear. Their case closed pizza and soda cans from the vending machine couldn't compare with a dinner where you needed a 'going out' dress.

At the moment, she'd been in the bathroom for over thirty minutes getting ready. Grace had gone in to help her do something with her hair, but she'd come out and given Jane a small smile, the kind of smile that told him that Lisbon looked truly beautiful for this other man she was going out with. The growing feelings he had for their boss weren't lost on Grace, who seemed to know exactly what he felt for Lisbon, but she was graceful enough, like her namesake, not to tease him about it relentlessly like he had done for her and Rigsby. He'd never have imagined that Lisbon would be the type of girl to take that long to get ready, because she didn't need that long to make herself look beautiful, but apparently even Lisbon indulged in the pampering.

And then she came out, and it was all Jane could do not to drop the pizza in his hand.

"How do I look?"

The team all looked up from their dinner with different reactions. Rigsby and Cho nodded with the simple "You look good, boss," and then went back to their pizza. Grace gushed over how perfect the dress was, and how it was a good idea to wear her hair that way, and Lisbon thanked them all, before looking to Jane for his approval – as if going on a date with another man was something he could approve of.

He took in the image before him...Lisbon standing in the bullpen...the absolutely radiant beauty that he'd never get to have for his own. It hurt him to know that she wasn't dressed up like this for him, but she looked happy, and if this old friend, Dominic, he remembered her telling him, made her happy then he was going to have to accept that. However, if Dominic didn't appreciate how amazing she was then he'd have to have some seriously bruising words with him about appreciating women.

She wore a deep green dress, not unlike the colour of her eyes. Since he'd seen her bring the dress in on a hanger that morning he'd had a number of arguably disturbing thoughts about removing that dress throughout the day. He didn't know what made him more uncomfortable, the fact that he could so clearly imagine every inch of her body being revealed to him, or the fact that there was very little of it that wasn't on show right now for Dominic to see. Not that it was a tasteless dress, mind you. The neckline wasn't revealing and the skirt fell to her calf. It was only when she turned to give him a complete view that he realised that almost her entire back was on show. But it wasn't smutty. He was drawn to the sight, for such a simple dress with a simple design...she looked absolutely breathtaking.

But she wasn't going out with him like that. Dominic was offering her a classy dinner at a fancy restaurant. He'd offered her soda and pizza.

Yeah, he didn't stand a chance.

"You look great," he told her, giving her the nod of approval she was waiting for.

"Honestly?" she asked, toying with the ends of her hair as if she were expecting him to be tricking her. She had all her hair up, swept in a clasp at the top of her neck. He always preferred her hair down, hanging over her shoulders. He could imagine it now, sweeping over the bare skin that was on show. "You're not just saying that to get rid of me faster?"

Jane got up from the desk he was sat on and made his way towards her. He took his time, not bothering to hide the fact that he was looking up and down. She immediately noticed the difference in his expression though. Jane wasn't the man to admire many women, given his eternal faithfulness to his lost wife, but she hadn't seen that expression in his eyes before. The eyes that traced the length of her body were not bedroom eyes, not eyes that wanted to lure her into a dark space and lock the door until they were both exhausted. No, those eyes craved something more, something simpler, yet all the more disappointing not to receive.

"No, really," he assured her, when he was standing before her, his hands in his pockets so that he could guarantee he wasn't going to be tempted to reach out and touch the bare skin of her bank, or try and correct her hair. If she were going out with him that night he'd have taken that hair clasp and thrown it across the room, letting her hair tumble over her shoulders, but she was going out with Dominic, so he allowed her to hide one of her most alluring traits from him. "You look...beautiful."

She smiled softly at him, trying to ignore the way he was looking at her. "Thank you."

He lifted his eyes to hers, holding her gaze steady for a moment. The anniversary of his family's death had been recently, so his eyes had held little but pain and sorrow for weeks now, and she was pleased to see something other than pain holding him. However, while she loved to see a man admiring her with such dedication, such adoration that it made her hide a shudder, it was awkward for it to come from someone who was clearly in no position to do so. He wasn't her boyfriend, nor was he a lover of any kind of her. He was her colleague and they were friends, and Dominic would be here any second to whisk her away from him...

They heard the rumble of the elevator in the distance, a signal that someone had stepped in on the ground floor and was currently travelling up to their level. The noise broke them apart, their eye contact – that dangerously close eye contact – was broken, and Jane stepped back. "You should get ready, he'll be here any minute," he said.

"Jane..." she started, still standing in place. He turned to her, and his expression could have fooled her that none of the past few moments of intense staring had happened. She took a breath and removed herself from the moment as he had done. "Be nice," she warned, when she noticed his eyes glancing towards the elevator with his trademark smirk.

"I am nice," he defended.

"I mean it," she enforced.

She disappeared into her office, no doubt to collect the rest of her things, and Jane and the team were left to meet the elevator when the doors finally pinged open. Jane noticed this and scurried over to the elevator doors, ignoring the teams grimace when he did so.

"This is going to be bad," Grace mumbled.

"No, it's not," Cho deadpanned.

"It's going to be brilliant," Rigsby grinned.

When the doors opened, Jane fought an urge to scream to the high heavens in frustration. Dominic was one of those sickeningly handsome men...pristine features, smoothly shaven skin, impeccably neat dark hair..the sort of man that women would think was carved by angels – the sort of man that left men like Jane feel like failures, effectively. Naturally, Lisbon was attracted to this, she had started to fall for this in a tiny way, and the possibility of her falling for him completely had made Jane's hatred for him fuel even more.

"Hi, I'm Dominic Brast," he greeted with a smile, holding out his hand.

"Jane," he said, not dignifying him with a first name. "Lisbon's almost ready."

"Lisbon?" he questioned.

"Ah, Teresa to you, I suppose," Jane mused with a slight nod of his head. "I apologise, you're almost certainly on first name terms with her, Mr Brast."

Dominic stepped out of the elevator to stand before Jane, the doors closing behind him again as they continued to stare at each other. "I see we're not on first name terms, Mr Jane," he noticed obnoxiously.

"Well, it isn't me you're taking on a date," Jane pointed out. "However, if you are offering I'll have to decline."

Dominic stared at him for a moment and then nodded understandingly. "You hate me on principle," he realised. "I'm dating your friend, so you hate me already."

"Something like that," Jane nodded.

"Jane!" Lisbon snapped as she came out of her office. "I said be nice!"

From that angle Dominic couldn't see her, although he did strain his neck in the direction of her voice. Jane leaned back slightly so call out to her. "Are you ready?" he asked her.

"I'm just finishing up a call, five minutes," she told him.

"No worries, we can entertain Mr Brast here," Jane assured her as she disappeared back into her office, but the second the door was closed he turned back to Dominic, keeping his voice low so that even Lisbon' s 'Jane's being stupid' radar couldn't pick up his words. "It should be understood that if you hurt her in any way, I will destroy you," he threatened simply.

"Teresa's a strong woman," Dominic said confidently. "She doesn't need the likes of you looking out for her."

Naturally, Lisbon was in the hall with them before Jane could act on his impulse to hit the smarmy newcomer. "Dominic," she said simply, smiling at her old friend.

And then Jane could only watch as Dominic pulled her into his arms, something that he half expected Lisbon to pull away from and break his arms, but she didn't. She put her arms around his in a mirror and held him just as tightly, obviously pleased to see her old friend – and by the end of the week, Jane estimated they'd be lovers. Lisbon said her goodbyes to the team, but they disappeared so quickly into the elevator that they barely got a chance to return her words.

Later, after the pizza was finished and the team went home, Jane lay awake for a long time. He knew that the power was out in Lisbon's apartment and that when Grace had offered her a spare room for the night she had turned it down, saying that they were going dancing after their dinner so it'd be late enough that she could just come straight into work and sleep for a few hours on her couch in her office. She'd assured them all she'd be fine for the one night, but did promise to take Grace up on her offer if she found herself in trouble of a place to stay. It was at four o'clock in the morning, when Jane heard the teenagers coming out of the clubs and singing loudly in the streets below about unicorns and nutcrackers, that Jane realised that Lisbon wasn't coming back, and the lack of a message from Grace made him realise where she would have ended up staying.

Dominic's.

But what made matters worse was finding out how much this bothered him. It meant he was jealous, and if he was jealous...

He didn't have feelings for Lisbon, did he?

END.


End file.
